252 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK n. 



a circumstance probably arising from the saline matter which this 

 water contains, and which instinct points out as beneficial to their 

 health. 



The extraordinary cleanliness and neatness, which have in the course 

 of centuries become hereditary habits in the Dutch people, are found 

 to prevail everywhere, and in everything, in Holland in the fields, 

 fences, roads, plantations, houses, buildings, as well as in the manage- 

 ment of cattle. On several occasions we have noticed this with much 

 interest, and with regret that such customs do not similarly prevail 

 in other countries. The grooming of milch cows, however, and their 

 better treatment in many ways, is spreading to other lands, and in 

 England, Scotland, Germany, Canada, the United States, and even 

 in Mexico, as we can also testify, dairy cows are treated with great kindli- 

 ness, well fed, well groomed, well cared-for generally, in instances 

 numerous enough, perhaps, to act as a leaven that " will leaven the 

 whole lump." In the south-western counties of Scotland, where the 

 plucky little Ayrshire cows are mostly found, the art of cattle manage- 

 ment, and of dairying in all its features, has attained a high degree of 

 excellence ; a week or two spent among the dairy farmers in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Mull of Galloway, will reveal a condition of things, as 

 indicated, not easily equalled in many other portions of the British 

 Islands. 



It has already been intimated that the best summer food for cows is 

 good grass, spontaneously growing on sound land ; but when such grass 

 is limited, or failing, then tares, lucerne, and clover, either cut or 

 pastured, may be very advantageously used as supplementary food. 

 There is a prejudice against tares, from their being supposed to render 

 the milk ropy; but we have been assured by a farmer who kept 

 twenty-one cows of a mixed breed on the verge of Epping Forest, that 

 he soiled them night and morning on tares during a great part of the 

 summer, without any other assistance than the common pasture of the 

 forest, and that not only was there no appearance of ropiness in the 

 milk, but it was far richer than when the cows were fed on meadow 

 grass, the butter likewise being of the finest quality. 



Beans given in conjunction with good pasturage are excellent far 

 keeping cows in milking order, and also in good condition. The beans 

 should be kibbled, and from three to four pounds of the broken 

 material given per day. 



Good sweet hay is the staple winter food of a milch cow ; the acces- 

 sories are those usually employed in feeding and fattening cattle. 

 Swede turnips, beans or peas broken, and oil-cake, will render the milk 

 richest. But carrots, mangel, and potatoes may be given. 1 Indeed, on 

 the Continent the mangel is preferred to other roots for feeding cattle, 2 



1 In the Island of Jersey, about 35 pounds of parsnips are given daily to the cows, with 

 hay. They are found to improve the quality of the cream, which is more abundant than 

 from an equal quantity of milk from cows differently fed seven quarts producing as much 

 as seventeen ounces of butter and the flavour of the latter is superior. "Quayle's General 

 View of the Norman Isles." 



2 Mr. Harley, at his dairy at Willowbank, put the comparative value of mangel and 

 Swedish turnips to the test. He took an equivalent weight of each, and gave them to 



